Friday, July 19, 2013

Head to port and crabbing to starboard

My left tongue seems to continue to develop some more form. Yesterday I had a increased sense that the hydrostatic nature of the tongue is important in being able to get my left tongue to move. My movements of my left tongue are still very tiny and spastic in comparison of what I can do normally in what I believe is in the right tongue dominated mode. There seems to be some spontaneous speech using the left tongue in which I am not trying to use it so much as it is used. However I am usually playing with it to some degree so it may be just that I was not paying attention to which tongue I was playing with at the time. In the left tongue mode there is an immediate sense of using my head and spine in a different way from my normal use. There is a hint of vulnerability as I am not getting everything correct. The musculature that connects to my left cervical spinal lateral processes feels somewhat confused in what to do. I think I am usually pulling back on the left so the right eye/side of face is more in the dominant forward position.

When I piloted a seagoing hopper dredge in a past lifetime I often had to point the bow ten to 15 degrees over to one side as the ship crabbed sideways down the channel to adjust for the current. It was important to not set down on the pipes that were on the bottom of the channel as the body of the ship could get over the draghead and damage the pipe. The ship would travel at only 1-2 knots while dredging. With a strong current that did not come straight down the channel on occasion I would have the opposite buoy on the wrong side of the ship's heading as I crabbed past it. It was usually a tricky situation with constant small adjustments to speed and heading compared to be able to dredge straight down the channel. Playing with the left tongue feels like I am pointing my head directly ahead instead of slightly to port. Hopefully I will be able to head down my channel without crabbing to starboard (bow headed somewhat to port) as much as I often do.